by Renee Rose
She’d really like to call Ashley back and talk some more about this wolf stuff, but her phone was back at her apartment. So was her laptop.
If Cody was serious about her not leaving his place, she would need them, or else her business would take a huge dive, which she couldn’t afford.
Her gaze wandered to his phone again. She wondered how long a shower he took. She could call an Uber car to drive her by her place. If it looked like the guys were still there, she’d just have the driver take her right back. But if it looked empty, she could run in and at least put together an overnight bag with the basic necessities. As much as she loved wearing Cody’s shirt, she needed real clothes. And her toothbrush, and makeup, and—yes—her phone and laptop, dammit!
She downloaded the Uber app onto Cody’s phone and logged into her account, which had her billing details already loaded. She quickly entered his address, which she got by poking her head out the door and checking the street sign and numbers on the house. It was a decent neighborhood, she realized. His property might be valued at twice what she originally estimated. Which was weird. Who bought a house in the Old North End and turned it into a workshop?
Yes! The Uber confirmed for just five minutes. This just might work. She could get away before Cody came out of the bathroom. Of course, there’d be hell to pay when she returned, but she was half excited about that, as crazy as it seemed.
A spanking? From a sexy, dangerous wolf? Definitely something she’d like to experience at least once in her life. She’d always been the reckless twin, as Ashley liked to point out.
Hearing the car roll up outside, she slipped out. Her outfit was ridiculous, but she didn’t care what the driver thought of her—this was an emergency.
She hopped in the car and the guy took off for her place, which was about fifteen minutes away.
It was a no-go, though. Lights lit up the place, and she could see the flicker of the television, and the dark silhouetted heads of two men sitting on the couch.
Damn.
“I’m not going to stop here,” she said quickly to the driver as he started to park. “Take me back to the address where you picked me up.”
He scowled in the rearview mirror. “That wasn’t what you scheduled.”
“I know. I’ll add the additional ride in right now,” she said, thumbing on her phone, her fingers flashing over the screen as she made good on her promise.
The driver grumbled, but took her back.
Her stomach dropped before the car even pulled up. A giant—seriously enormous—silver wolf sniffed the grass around the front steps. It jerked its head up and ice blue eyes stared right at her.
“Oh, my God, is that a wolf?” the driver asked. “Shut the door!”
“No, it’s my dog. It’s okay. Just a big husky. Not sure how he got out. Thanks, I’ll add the tip to my card. Appreciate it!” She swung the door shut before he could mention the wolf again.
Then she swallowed and forced her feet to move in the direction of the front door—and the very angry wolf.
A low growl came from the wolf’s throat and she froze in her tracks. Was it Cody? What if it was some other, enemy wolf?
The wolf narrowed its eyes and sat down, as if waiting for her. Okay, angry wolf. She could deal with this. He wasn’t going to bite her or anything. Just spank her. Or whip her.
And yes, that thought still sent heat rolling through her body.
“Hi, Wolf. Silver. Big boy.” Her voice only wavered a little. She turned the knob on the front door. The moment it swung wide, he pushed through, ahead of her.
Not really the gentleman, was he? It was probably a dominance thing. The alpha goes in first or some such rule. She thought she remembered that from that Cesar Milan dog training show.
She followed him in and shut the door behind him. He transformed before her eyes, shifting upright into human form, his magnificent male body stark naked, his cock jutting out at a perfect ninety-degree angle.
Whoa.
As she’d suspected, his entire body was solid muscle. At least a dozen tattoos covered his body, along with the silvery lines of scars that looked suspiciously like teeth marks. Her mouth dropped open.
But fury came off Cody in waves. His eyes hadn’t changed back to gray yet, the cold blue gaze icy and lethal. He definitely wasn’t angling for sex at the moment.
“Where in the fuck did you go?”
She winced. “I took an Uber car to my place to see if they’d gone. I really wanted my phone and laptop. The guys were still there, so I didn’t stop.” The words came tumbling out quickly, as she hoped to answer all his questions at once.
He glowered and stalked away to the bedroom, presumably to put some clothes on. A moment later, he returned in a pair of jeans, his torso still beautifully bare, apart from the ink. She admired the tattoos on his bulging biceps—they were beautiful designs and patterns, like crop circles or ancient symbols. She wondered what they meant.
“What did I tell you would happen if you left?”
She flushed as his graphic words returned to her. I’ll spank you until this perfect ass is red and your sweet little pussy is dripping wet.
“I know.”
He lifted an eyebrow, the tic in his jaw appearing. “You know? So you decided the punishment was worth the risk?”
She shrugged. “I can’t stay holed up here for days without my phone and computer. I have clients and a boss I need to communicate with. I can do a lot online—I might not even lose any business.”
His nostrils flared and he drew a deep breath as if to calm himself. “Your career won’t mean shit if you’re dead. And I made an alpha’s promise to keep you safe, which means if you’d been caught, your decision would seriously fuck my life up, too.”
“I see. So you don’t really care about my safety, just about your precious promise. Glad we got that straight. I’ll try not to fuck up your deal with Ben any more than necessary.”
He stared at her for a long moment, his expression inscrutable. She realized his eyes had gone back to normal without her noticing the moment they’d changed.
To her surprise, he held out his palm, as if to hold her hand. “Come here.” There was something half-appealing about the gesture, like they were going to have a playdate instead of some form of physical punishment.
She found herself moving to accept the offer, since it was the first halfway friendly sign he’d shown. Was it out of pity for her because of what he was about to do?
He led her to the couch, where he sat down and immediately pulled her over his knees.
* * *
Cody didn’t miss Melissa’s shiver as she settled across his lap, her torso resting on the sofa.
“You’re probably going to enjoy this,” she blustered. He recognized the tremor in her voice under the words.
He wrapped a fist in her hair, stroking her scalp first before he gripped the strands and pulled her head back. “This is not a game for me,” he growled.
It was true. The weight of punishing her overrode the intense sexual need she sparked in him, for once. He didn’t want to hurt her—not in a way that wasn’t sexual or didn’t feel good. If Melissa were his mate, he’d buy one of those furry, padded paddles and the spankings would only be symbolic of his dominance.
But this was serious. Her life was at stake and he was charged with keeping her safe. If he didn’t make her think twice about defying him again, something terrible might happen to her.
He peeled his boxer briefs down her heart-shaped ass. They were way too big for her and she’d rolled the waistband down several times, somehow managing to make them look both sexy and cute. The fact that she’d gone out in this outfit—alone with an Uber driver—made him grit his teeth with fury.
She reached back to catch the briefs, grabbing the fabric and trying to pull it back up. He gripped her wrists and twisted them behind her back, pinning them with one hand as he dragged the briefs all the way off her with the other.
His cock str
ained at the sight of her naked ass, roaring to life, ready to sink between those beautiful thighs and never stop moving. But this was punishment. The weight of it had forced him to shift out of his dirty-talking bad boy predator self and into something new. For the first time, he felt some of the responsibility of being a leader—the responsibility his father had always complained he lacked.
Bracing himself against the pain of inflicting this punishment, he lifted his palm and let it fall. It landed with a crack on her right cheek.
She jerked, but didn’t make a sound.
He repeated it on the left.
Already, red fingerprints bloomed on the first side. She’d be rosy red and throbbing by the time he finished and despite the way he’d threatened her earlier, he doubt she’d be turned on in the slightest. If he planned to make an impression on her, he couldn’t make this fun.
He started with light slaps, letting both of them settle into the spanking, wanting to get a sense of how much she could take. He needed to be careful not to use his shifter strength on her.
She wriggled and gasped, but otherwise accepted the warm-up. Of course, she didn’t know it was just a warm-up.
He concentrated his aim on the lower half of her buttocks, where she sat, sometimes swatting the backs of her thighs, which made her squeal.
“When I tell you to stay put, you stay put,” he growled, increasing the intensity of the spanks, his hand crashing down in a swift volley of spanks.
She jerked hard against his restraint, kicking her legs out to the side. “Ow! Okay, okay!”
He hooked one leg over hers to keep her in position.
“I said okay,” she squealed when he continued to spank her.
“You are not directing this punishment, princess.”
He sensed her rising panic as he continued to spank her hard and fast, her delicious ass bouncing under his punishing blows.
“Stop,” she wailed. “Stop it!”
“I’m just getting started, baby girl. I won’t be stopping until your ass is on fire and you’re swearing up and down you’ll never disobey me again.”
“I won’t,” she yelled, but she sounded petulant rather than penitent.
He continued on, turning her cheeks from a blushing pink to tomato red.
He’d only spanked one other female—Lorna, a she-wolf from his pack who he’d been sleeping with at the time. She’d gotten mouthy with him, and he’d rolled her over and spanked her. They’d both liked it. He’d fucked her afterwards and then spanked her again, the second time longer and harder, until she surrendered fully.
He looked for that surrender in Melissa now, but the human still struggled on his knee, fighting both him and the pain. He knew it had to hurt—he’d been spanking hard for at least two minutes. The poor girl’s breaths came in quick little gasps and her fingers dug into the sofa cushions, knuckles white.
“Bad. Girl.” He spanked just a little harder.
She shrieked and yowled.
“I’ll obey you,” she gasped, her words tumbling out quickly over his harsh slaps. “I won’t do it again.”
He stopped the onslaught and rubbed her blazing cheeks roughly. “Won’t do what again?”
“I won’t leave. I won’t disobey you. Okay? I won’t.” Her voice sounded choked, but he didn’t smell any tears.
He kneaded her ass, squeezing her perfect flesh, not releasing her from the restraining position he’d put her in.
Only then did he smell her arousal.
His heart stopped when he realized his prediction had still held true.
Her pussy really was dripping for him.
He rubbed some more, caressing her curves and drawing deep breaths in an effort to hold back the beast that screamed at him to throw her down and mount her in the most debasing way possible. He lifted the leg he’d clamped over the top of hers.
“Part your thighs if you want me to take care of that ache between your legs.” His voice sounded gravelly.
She froze, only her back rising and falling with the movement of her breath, her pretty face hidden from his view, turned into the cushions.
Of course she wasn’t going to offer herself up to him. What was he thinking? He’d just hurt and humiliated her. She probably wouldn’t speak to him again.
To his shock, her thighs inched apart.
He didn’t move, not quite believing his eyes.
They opened wider, offering a clear view of the pink heart of her sex, dewy and plump.
A shudder of lust kicked through him. “Beautiful girl,” he murmured, feeling as reverent as he sounded. Without releasing her wrists, he brought his fingers to her ripe core, running them lightly along her slit.
The lap hump she gave nearly made him lose control. He stifled a curse and sought her clit. It was already swollen, hot beneath the pad of his finger. He circled once, twice, then flicked and tapped.
Her wanton cry made his hips jerk to match the movement of hers. He circled again. Flicked. Tapped.
“Cody…”
He loved the sound of his name on her lips way too damn much. He loved the scent of her arousal even more. He couldn’t wait to taste her. Couldn’t wait to hear what her cries sounded like when she came.
He slid his fingers down, seeking her welcoming entrance. They slid into her tight heat. He rotated them, angled his elbow to reach to the front of her wall, seeking her g-spot.
She squealed and bowed upward, her wrists pulling in his hand, her legs straightening out, punished ass squeezing tight.
“Are you going to come for me, baby?” His voice didn’t sound like his own; it had dropped two octaves.
“Yes,” she wailed.
“Who are you going to come for?” He slid his fingers out of her and returned to her clit, circling, flicking.
Her thighs trembled, she humped relentlessly.
“You,” she gasped.
He slapped her clit. “Say please.”
“Please! Oh, God, please, Cody.”
“That’s it, baby, say my name. Who makes you come?”
“Cody! Cody makes me come.”
He plunged his fingers inside her again and tickled her g-spot.
She screamed. Once more, she arched, her entire body tightening with her internal walls, which squeezed his fingers.
“Oh, my gawd! What did you do to me?” she wailed as her body continued to shudder and clench, her orgasm going on and on.
Her orgasm was even more spectacular than he anticipated. If he hadn’t known what a fucking privilege it had been to witness, he might have lost control. He still could barely stand not claiming her. And yet he feared if he did, he’d mark her. She had an undeniable effect on him.
With a whimper, Melissa finally finished and collapsed over his leg. He immediately scooped her up into his arms and stood. He needed to put her out of reaching distance, fast.
He carried her to his bedroom, pulled back the blankets and settled her on the mattress. She looked adorable in his oversized t-shirt and he had to work hard to ignore the screaming awareness that she wasn’t wearing panties. With a flick of the blankets, he covered that tempting part of her anatomy.
He thought he ought to say something. The word sorry came to mind, but an alpha doesn’t apologize for delivering punishment. And thanks wasn’t exactly appropriate since he hadn’t been the one who got off, as his aching cock kept attesting.
Probably good night would’ve summed it up, but his tongue didn’t work—it was stuck to the roof of his mouth—so he simply turned off the light as he went out.
He would sleep on the couch. As fucking far away from that tempting little human as he could get.
* * *
Melissa lay on the bed, as limp as a rag doll. Pleasure still coursed through her in waves, but she felt the loss of Cody’s presence acutely. And her ass still throbbed. She brought a hand down and ran it over the swollen orbs, wincing at the heat coming off them.
What in the hell had that all been about?
&nbs
p; She hadn’t been sure what to expect from her punishment. It had been painful—so much more than she thought she could take, and yet also not as bad as her worst imaginings. He hadn’t been angry or mean. The way he’d trapped her over his lap had been both somehow as comforting as it had been controlling. The stark intimacy they’d just experienced left her feeling raw. And then the way she’d shamelessly given herself over to him—not just that, but begged him to make her come—made her want to crawl in a hole and die.
She blinked into the darkness, all the emotions of the day catching up to her—from the terror of hiding in the closet, to the post-traumatic stress it brought up from her kidnapping a year ago, to the spanking and then the sex. If you could call that sex. Her orgasm. He hadn’t gotten off, which surprised her. She hadn’t pegged him for the kind of guy who cared about his partner’s pleasure. At all.
She wanted to call Ashley, just to hear her twin, to talk about Cody and everything. Dammit, if she only had her phone! Tears dripped down her cheeks. She sucked in deep breaths, not wanting Cody to hear.
She definitely didn’t want that asshole to know he’d made her cry.
Asshole didn’t fit though. No asshole would take care of her needs without meeting his own. No asshole would carry her into bed and tuck her under the blankets.
Jesus, she was just so confused.
The door abruptly swung open and Cody strode in, looking dangerous.
She shrank back. Was he coming for sex now? She definitely wasn’t up for it, even if she did owe him an orgasm.
He sat down beside her and reached for her.
No. She didn’t want him to see her crying. She definitely didn’t want him to know.
But when she pushed against him, even fought to keep him away, he simply caged her wrists in one large hand and scooped her onto his lap.
He hadn’t said a word. She wasn’t even sure what was going on.
He tucked her trapped wrists against her chest and thumbed the tears off one side of her face.
